I recently took part in a beaver and bear watch in the forest near Lake Sarcombie in Canada.
We first met our not-so-trusty jeep, which we named Bert. The splitting image of a jeep from Jurrassic Park - old, decrepid, falling to bits, difficult to get in and out of. Sounds like fun right? Well, when you need to drive 4km into the depths of a forest on a dusty track where you can’t go past 2nd gear… slight problem.
We had to go up one hill three times and do a massive run up because we couldn’t get enough speed. Imagine a rollercoaster, except one you’re driving, which isn’t safe, and you’re following another jeep, with seats that are broken, warning lights that keep flashing on, open sides and not too safe seatbelts. Pretty terrifying. Then we got used to it, and it was more like an out of control ride.
The first stop was at the beavers; Charlie, Ergo, Charlene, Charlotte. They were quite shy, but came closer when the guide we were with offered them food, they even came up onto the bank, or swam around the lake area (they had split it off by creating a 3 metre high by 10 metre long dam) and nommed on the leaves that he fed them. They were lovely, we went to have a look at their house, and walked around the river, and the guide told us all about them.
After another death ride in the jeep, we stopped off to view the black bear in the heart of the forest. There was a small viewing house we all sat in, everyone clicking their cameras frantically. It was pretty exciting, but the bear was quite far away, and we didn’t get a great view. We watched him paw food out of the massive tub (it looked like corn) which is given to them everyday by the hotel. A fox also crept into view, but thought better of it when he saw the bear and pottered off. A couple of squirrels also flitted around, stealing some corn, nomming around too. Cute.
Overall it was a really good experience, seeing some animals I probably never will see again. If anyone gets the chance to go roaming around the forests of Canada, check out for bear and beaver tours. And make sure you pick the most fallen apart jeep if you ever get to drive one. It’s definitley the most fun.
